Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating the mechanism of phonological change in progress: Allophonic restructuring of /ae/ in Philadelphia

博士论文研究：调查正在进行中的语音变化的机制：费城/ae/的异音重组

• 批准号: 1628408
• 负责人: Meredith Tamminga
• 金额: $ 1.41万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-15 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1628408&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Investigating; mechanism

The goal of this dissertation project is to deepen our understanding of how language change spreads through a speech community. Language change is a constant and inevitable fact about language: new words, new sound patterns, new syntactic constructions. Because large-scale sound recordings are relatively new, very little is understood about the production and mental representation of sound changes in the minds of individuals who acquire language during a period of phonological change. This project investigates a phonological restructuring currently in progress in Philadelphia, in order to identify the mechanism of phonological change as it propagates through individual speakers in a speech community. The results will form the basis of a science fair exhibit on phonological change in Philadelphia, educating the public on language change and emphasizing the value of linguistic diversity. Phonological change is defined as a change in the abstract representation or allophonic rules governing a phonological segment, to the exclusion of phonetic change, which entails a change in the physical output of a phonological segment. Previous hypotheses have suggested that phonological change occurs as the result of phonetic incrementation (Ohala, 1981), occurs before any phonetic incrementation (Fruehwald, 2013; Janda and Joseph 2003), or through an extension of competing grammars (Kroch, 1989; 2001) to phonological change (Fruehwald et al. 2013). The restructuring of short-a in Philadelphia provides an ideal testing ground for these three theories of phonological change, as it is an ongoing change allowing access to the critical speakers, and as the outputs of both systems provide clear evidence regarding the underlying system. Understanding the mechanism of phonological change within individuals will shed light on the mental representations of language change more broadly. Preliminary findings suggest the operation of two phonological subsystems of short-a within a single speaker, supporting the extension of competing grammars to phonological change and suggesting that categorical linguistic change in both the syntactic and phonological domain may occur through a period of grammar competition within individual speakers.

本论文项目的目标是加深我们对语言变化如何通过言语社区传播的理解。语言的变化是一个恒定的和不可避免的事实：新的单词，新的语音模式，新的句法结构。由于大规模的录音是相对较新的，很少有人了解的生产和心理表征的声音变化的个人谁获得语言期间的语音变化。本项目调查了费城目前正在进行的语音重组，以确定语音变化的机制，因为它通过个人扬声器在一个语音社区传播。研究结果将成为费城语音变化科学展的基础，教育公众了解语言变化，强调语言多样性的价值。语音变化是指语音片段的物理输出的变化，而语音变化则是指语音片段的物理输出的变化。先前的假设认为，语音变化是语音增量的结果（Ohala，1981），发生在任何语音增量之前（Fruehwald，2013; Janda and Joseph 2003），或者通过竞争语法的延伸（Kroch，1989; 2001）到语音变化（Fruehwald et al. 2013）。费城的short-a重组为这三种语音变化理论提供了一个理想的试验场，因为它是一个持续的变化，允许进入关键的扬声器，并且两个系统的输出提供了关于潜在系统的明确证据。理解个体内部语音变化的机制将更广泛地揭示语言变化的心理表征。初步研究结果表明，操作的两个语音子系统的短-一个在一个单一的扬声器，支持竞争的语法扩展到语音变化，并建议在句法和语音领域的分类语言变化可能会发生通过一段时间的语法竞争在个别扬声器。